WARWICK — Sixteen-year-old Eaden Marti meets a lot of other teenagers who are interested in magic. For most, though, it’s just a phase; for Marti, it’s becoming a lifestyle.
Having practiced magic since he was 6, Marti knows that his passion will stick with him and hopes to turn it into his career one day, after he graduates from college. For now, he’s preparing to journey to Bryn Mawr College outside of Philadelphia for his third year as a participant in the world-known Tannen’s Magic Camp.
The week-long camp, which starts Saturday, is open to magicians ages 11 to 20, and features magic classes, workshops and evening performances by famous magicians like David Copperfield, Michael Carbonaro and Derek Hughes.
This year, Marti received a full scholarship of $1,570 based on a video performance that he sent to the camp’s organizers. In the video, Marti asks that viewers pick a card as he thumbs through the stack, and then he makes the card appear in black Expo marker on the card box’s plastic wrapper.
“They thought that I could go far with my magic and that I had potential,” Marti said.
Marti has had a lot of time to hone his skills. It all began for him when he was a 6-year-old student attending The Hartsbrook School in Hadley, and a guest magician, Fran Ferry of Belchertown, came to perform.
“He took a $1 bill and changed it into a $100 bill,” Marti remembers. “Of course, we were pretty impressed.”
Shortly after, Marti’s parents, Claudia Lewis and Zachary Marti, gave him a magic kit for his seventh birthday, and he began to practice. Three years later, Marti would meet Ferry again, this time during a performance at The Amherst Pub.
“I told him the story of how he had inspired me when I was little and we became really good friends,” Marti said. “He was impressed that (his performance) made such an impression on me.”
Since then, Ferry has been teaching Marti what he has learned through decades of experience. While Ferry isn’t a full-time magician anymore, Marti said that he has performed in Las Vegas, Thailand and Denmark.
“He’ll kind of critique the routines I’m working on,” Marti said. “He’ll tell me if what I’m working on has potential.”
Marti has even mastered a form of Ferry’s trick, where he rearranges the pattern of a dollar bill. He performs a lot of tricks involving money and playing cards, which Marti says are based on the ideas of mind-reading and imagination.
Attending magic camp has become another way for Marti to work on perfecting the art.
At the beginning of each session, many of the roughly 100 participants compete, with four finalists being selected. The finalists train to perfect their routine by the end of the week and then perform again.
In his first year at camp, Marti came in second in the competition. He intends to compete again this year.
“Most people do it because even if you don’t get into the finals, the judges critique your act and that’s really helpful,” he said.
Marti explained that the students are divided up by skill level and depending on the type of magic they’re most interested in: close-up, parlor or stage. Marti currently practices close-up magic in intimate settings, like going table to table at a restaurant. However, he’s considering practicing parlor magic this year, where the performances are designed for a small stage.
The camp is also a great way for Marti to meet other teens with similar interests.
“There’s a big magic community,” he said. “We all have something in common, so it’s easy to connect to other people.”
Throughout the rest of the year, Marti performs at private parties, corporate events, schools and town events, traveling within a 100-mile radius often by bus or train.
Recently, he has been working to perfect tricks that are performed without props, using only the mind. For example, he asks his subjects to pick a number and tells them what number they picked, or he can tell them their heart rate without touching them.
Marti says that such tricks are both challenging and rewarding for him.
“I believe that for your audience the fewer physical things that are used, the more impressive it is,” he said. “Using only our minds to connect and do a trick can bring out very strong emotions, and the strong emotions are what you remember most.”
Marti has also taken up an 11-year-old mentee of his own and is teaching himself sign language so that he might develop shows for the deaf.
After attending college for theater, which Marti thinks will improve his performing skills, Marti wants to continue doing magic professionally at refugee camps and prisons.
“I’d really like to travel the world and perform magic for less privileged kids and adults,” he said. Marti sees magic as a way of showing that he cares, and a way of connecting with people.
“When you’re performing, you build a strong relationship with who you’re performing for,” he said, even if it’s just for the few minutes that the trick lasts.